Book Review #23 - The Art of Fielding

Fifty pages in, I thought, "Yes! This is what I like to read! It is already so good!"

With such a strong start, it had four-hundred and fifty pages to go downhill and, boy, oh boy, did it ever skid on down.

Henry Skrimshander is the real deal at shortstop. Unfortunately, because of his scrawny build and small-town Wisconsin isolation, no one notices. Until Mike Schwartz, Westish College's team captain and catcher steps in sets Henry on the path to baseball stardom. The Art of Fielding is mostly about the relationship and motives of these two college baseball players but Chad Harbach decides to go for what he must have considered a grand slam and ruin a sweet home run by throwing Guert Affenlight, Westish College's Dean, and his depressed daughter, Pella into the character lineup.

It's been awhile since I've read something that disappointed me so much. Books often have stronger beginnings than ends but Harbach's early plot development and delightfully nuanced characters fell short more than most. What I thought was going to be a subtle metaphor between baseball and life turned into a nauseating, immoral and overwrought drama. Characters who had flaws suddenly become one giant flaw. Everything was overdone. And then he tries to resolve the whole mess at once! Bah!

It had so much potential. This book about fielding baseballs-both literal and metaphorical, was such a nice masculine book and after my somewhat heavy-on-the-chick-lit summer, I felt some balance return reading about muscle building protein shakes and road trips via bus. As a woman, I've been told that men don't like to analyze problems, they like to fix them and if that is true, then Harbach needs to fix this book.

First problem: too much book incest. These people need to get out of themselves more. You have Henry and Mike and Owen and Guert and Pella and they are all sleeping with each other! It is icky. I know it's a small college and all but it's a fatal flaw.

The first problem directly leads to the second problem. Because these five peoples are impossibly up in each others business, all of their problems reach a ridiculous climax at the same time. Really? How convenient for your story.

The last problem is the most annoying. The end. It is so bad. You are seriously going to end your story by a feel-good group grave digging? Oh. My. Word.

I'm trying to review the book for what it was and not for what it could have been but it's hard to do. It could have been so, so good. But, it wasn't.